location The project site is the former Reformed Church School at the Bloemstraat, which is located in the popular district of ‘Oudwijk’ in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Originally the school is constructed in a periphery of classrooms around a U-shaped corridor with a collective courtyard. Over the years the middle section was demolished and the building transformed into a convent-like typology around a communal courtyard.

design The old classrooms on the street will be transformed into one or two housing units per classroom. The surfaces vary from 35 to 60 m2 when using the complete height of the rooms. Individual rehearsal rooms will be built on the side of the courtyard, which will be part of the social and communal building side.

assignment The former Reformed Church School is an ideal building for a program that is characterized by education and social orientation. For this reason the new program of the building will be centered around the theme music: making space to perform, listen and study music. These so called “rehearsal cubes” can be used by the residents and are placed on the upper floor between the U-shaped corridor and the collective courtyard. In the cubes there will be an interaction between the private part of the building and the surrounding. From the courtyard and also from the street the performances can be observed. At the head of the courtyard the communal spaces are placed: on the ground level there is a music school and above it a performance hall. Both spaces are connected to the courtyard and the visually to the surrounding area by a transparent facade. On the public sides of the building, the facades are restored in its original form and composition.